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Vintage photos of:
Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
1933. A view across New York's Central Park Lake framed by the Sherry-Netherland and Plaza hotels. 5x7 safety negative by the noted architectural photographer Samuel H. Gottscho. View full size.
February 12, 1908. Montague Roberts in Times Square driving the Thomas Flyer at the start of the New York to Paris automobile race 100 years ago today. Five months later the car rolled into Paree and won, with considerable drama along the way. There's an entertaining account of the competition in the New York Times, which sponsored the event a century ago. View full size. 5x7 glass negative by George Grantham Bain, whose photos illustrate the NYT article.
December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Work goes on twenty-four hours a day at this Chicago and North Western Railroad yard." View full size. Medium format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
July 1942. "Stand of virgin ponderosa pine, Malheur National Forest, Grant County, Oregon." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee.
September 24, 1908. West Allis, Wisconsin. "Taft crowd at Allis-Chalmers works." Audience for William Taft, speaking from the platform of his train at the Allis- Chalmers yards. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, G.G. Bain Collection.
Spring 1944. Another target for Operation Strangle. "French airmen hit a pinpoint target. Flying with the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces under the tricolor of France, the Frenchmen split a vital rail bridge 600 feet long and 15 feet wide at the Piteccio viaduct in central Italy. On the wing of the American-made B-26 bomber may be seen the roundel of the French Air Force." View full size.
June 17, 1925. "Klingle Ford Bridge wreck" in Washington, D.C., just off (and under) Connecticut Avenue. 4x5 glass negative, National Photo Company Collection. View full size. Who can identify the car?
1943. On maneuvers in wartime Washington. "A soldier and a woman in a park, with the Old [Russell] Senate Office Building behind them." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency, photographer unknown. Office of War Information.
A schoolhouse, schoolmarm and students circa 1905, "possibly in South Carolina." View full size. Gelatin silver print by Detroit Publishing.
October 1913. Houston, Texas. Curtin Hines. Western Union messenger #36. Fourteen years old. Goes to school. Works from 4 to 8 p.m. Been with Western Union for six months, one month delivering for a drug store. "I learned a lot about the 'Reservation' [Red Light] while I was at the drug store and I go there sometimes now." View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.
October 1941. The main-concourse information desk at Grand Central Terminal in New York. Medium format nitrate negative by John Collier. View full size.
Washington, 1943. A study in contrasts at Union Station. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparencies, photographer unknown. Office of War Information.
May 1910. Wilmington, Delaware. "James Lequlla, newsboy, age 12. Selling newspapers 3 years. Average earnings 50 cents per week. Selling newspapers own choice. Earnings not needed at home. Don't smoke. Visits saloons. Works 7 hours per day." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
July 1910. Postal Telegraph Co. messengers, 283 Broadway. "The boys make good use of the shower baths." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
October 1941. "Grand Central Terminal, New York City." View full size. Medium format negative by John Collier. FSA/Office of War Information archive.